deal with international schools. two of the country's major. public. joint probe into an alleged chemical. syria following reports in the west.

thank you very much for joining us here today. live in moscow with your news from around the world. cyprus has managed to reach a last minute deal with its creditors on a. crucial to prevent the country from bankruptcy and the rescue package however comes at a steep price deposits about one hundred thousand euros in the country's two largest banks will be raided with about thirty percent. reports from nicosia. the. country will essentially be. the one hundred thousand euros in the bank will be transferred to. more than one hundred thousand euros of uninsured. those that are not. guaranteed

would be taking a huge very significant loss and this will really hurt those with of course their life savings or those with the small to medium sized enterprises with money in the bank so they will take the taking a big loss and. result in jobs lost. hundreds of. protesting here. the biggest lender is not out of the also let's remember that there are still capital controls in place which means. that citizens can take the amount of money they can move around and this is really creating a credit crunch a cash crunch everybody trying to hold on to those. just in case. right now they can only take about one hundred euros and the reaction here is.

still very disappointed. that as the. feeling of the people here is that a red line has been crossed remember the suggestion that they will be dipping into . even a small deposit holders this is really sent a message to people they've lost confidence in whatever the government or detroit. i have cash will i have a job will i have savings and these questions for them are not. that their government has agreed with. reporting right there well let's get another level of perspective now on the story i'm joined in the studio by a news editor i have a coffee good to see you today let's address some of the issues here regarding cyprus and the vast amounts of money that's being attacked or raided as some would say there are a lot of not just wealthy russians but russian banks that operate out of cyprus here some are saying this seizure of certain amounts of money is essentially

a form of theft of russian money that's absolutely right. prime minister medvedev last week used the term expropriation which was a reference to what the bolsheviks did in the past he today has followed up that statement with with a statement saying basically the stealing of what has already been stolen continues and that's a that's a reference to cyprus is off shore status of the russian economy and well thirty nine other economies at least and yet as an expression of how he feels about it there are very unhappy with so we have to really have side of reaction then from the russian it's very very i mean i've if you can take us back for a bit if you will because it's been what almost a year in the making that cyprus are bailed out how it was it was nine months ago that cyprus asked for a bailout they asked for seventeen billion euro which is about one hundred percent of g.d.p. . there was a general election in cyprus during that time a couple of delays at the russian. russia refused to get involved the eurozone wanted to wanted to. foist the cyprus problem on to russia russia said it was

eurozone problem anyhow what happened eventually was that we came down to the wire as usual as is the case with pretty much every euro group decision it becomes more of a debacle than a. decision of all five am this morning they come up with ten billion. bailout which is seven which is short seven billion less than than what so is there a last second to last second supposed gesture of being saved here but it's massively short of what they're asking for we understand now that well the country's second largest bank will be closed or thousand jobs will go. what do you know about the capital but from what i understand is flying out of cyprus right yeah yeah there's been reports this morning frankfurter allgemeine zeitung reported that despite the freeze this is quite a story the euro group froze the retail banking sector of an entire country people couldn't go to the market if the there was a two hundred euro limit on what they could take out of a.t.m.'s now there's one hundred euro limit if the a.t.m.'s are running at all so despite this freeze on

capital controls being applied to the other by your group the reports are this morning that capital flight from cyprus doubled the regular traffic about two hundred million euro a day doubles in the in the way they're seizing that money other money is flying out of cyprus i'm sure max keiser of the kaiser report will come because there's some form of financial terrorism but perhaps he would be right in calling it something like that well yeah i think you know the euro group have really managed a debacle they've got a lot of egg on their face that's for sure. at the same time we see that a lot of the e.u. the euro group talking heads or are using the term casino economy that's right try to legitimize what it is that they're doing in cyprus. they get the point to work making the easy be vetted cyprus for euro zone membership in two thousand and eight and gave it a go ahead into that thousand and eleven they perform a stress test on the bank of cyprus and like

a bank and said things were ok to turn around now and say that there's a form of casino capitalism been going on there i think it's massive desperation well you know frankly it doesn't sound that different from the norm coming out of brussels and we've been saying it for years now i but what about what about other members of the year or the e.u. for that matter you know could they look at cyprus and go we're going to get the shock waves coming off this so i think first and foremost worry is very important to try and consider the impact the original attempt to. block six percent of deposits that were below one hundred thousand insipid. into raid basically deposits the shock wave that sent around the world how well we're going to see the effect of that when the eurozone finally allows cypriot banks trade remember they're still frozen it's a bank holiday today in cyprus so to what extent capital will fly. is going to basically judge whether people think that the euro zone is a credible trading partner or not but what about i mean for example you know for

the past few years whether it's in greece or portugal or spain or even ireland you know we seen so much anger and frustration against the euro crowds and the technocrats based out of brussels here just becomes quite apparent to the average person that a lot of these politicians and bankers are all in bed together when you talk about the tension in cyprus where do you see it going it is going to reach a boiling point has it reached the boiling point where no no i think everybody realizes that cyprus is far from out of the woods there are seven billion short right now there is a good bank bad bank situation going on where many people feel that the bank of cyprus itself will have to be bailed out again or will collapse within six weeks they're about when it comes to the issue of who's going to get bailed out this time g g g g forecast the microscope once again coming on to germany because germany is shouldering a lot of the burden it's very it's very clear that merkel is driving policy here however i think merkel would probably be furious both with the lack of response that she has she has got from the cypriot leadership but more importantly the

absolute debacle that the troika over song for the last week absolutely i mean usually the e.c.b. in the i.m.f. and and certainly the guys with the purse strings you can see i mean the thing is you know you ok so you get a bailout then you'll get you know a bailout it's a high interest loan who ends up paying off the high interest loan what goes to the people the people who are already suffering austerity cuts let's health care less retirement funding less education this that and the other to me it's a wonder that we haven't seen some europe wide uprising and swelling of total and utter anger and frustration and u.g.g. think the politicians are actually listen. what the people are saying in any way you think with the public. in my opinion i think the those that are at the top of the euro zone. been out of touch with the common european for perhaps a generation i mean since the beginning the project we've always been a democratic deficit it's been there since the glorious ever closer union days. there's no evidence to suggest that that's not the case right now. thanks so much

for coming in thank you. well it's a ten minutes past the hour moscow time thanks for joining us here on the program and the mystery behind the death of boris verizon clear out within hours this following an autopsy the body of the self. kremlin opponent was found in his bath tub at the weekend now they have been suggestions to form a billionaire took his own life but police say that he left no suicide note behind have also ruled out any third party involvement. made an immense fortune back in the ninety's it's widely believed he took advantage of the chaos gripping post soviet russia coupled with cozy relations with president yeltsin's inner circle it's like you're later moved to london to escape multiple charges of financial crime dr mcdowell an independent expert on russia. never believed that he would lose his grip on power. i don't think that there's much doubt that you know bears all ski thought putin was somebody that he could control but he would you know

let's previous financial dealings he water under the bridge and of course president putin said no he stood up to the oligarchs when he was first elected in this was the reason that. we quit russia a number of mr very soft friend and confidant have come forward and said that it's very depressed and had lost meaning over the past couple of days we do have to remember that he had just lost an extremely high profile legal case which not only did the financial cost that british judge had attention he called him a liar on record i mean this was a broken in defeated man. his venom on when the kremlin i suppose i was ultimately sold his exile to the u.k. columnist i'm married to jeff ski from the independent newspaper believes some foreign officials in london could actually now see the tycoons policy as perhaps an opportunity to try and improve russia u.k.

relations. i don't think he particularly was a serious threat to the kremlin. i think that. fancied himself as a threat and maybe he wanted to be more of a threat than actually he was. but the position that he held through the second half of the ninety's in russia obviously made him a key figure of that period the figure of berezovsky his position when he died this weekend and the contrast between that and his position of power and influence in the late ninety's illustrates in some ways how russia has changed and how much russia has changed in those five ten years i think elsewhere behind the scenes in places like foreign office in the corridors of government they'll be you know i won't say they will be doing something as improper as sort of dancing in the aisles but it is obviously was a very awkward figure he was a big obstacle to diplomacy with russia and i think his death will be seen as

i hope anyway as maybe removing an obstacle to better relations with russia this is are still to come for you in the program that of seeing no evil we investigate why the u.s. mainstream media is turning a blind eye to the developing hunger strike crisis at guantanamo bay prison. technology innovation. developments around russia. the future. and then. you hear see some other part of it and realize. i'm welcome to the big picture.

is. that this is a. china must be part of a u.n. investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in a deadly. according to a senior russian diplomat i mean while rebels have stepped up their accusations

against forces loyal to president assad let's clear it up now and get to the right in clear details. next. the syrian opposition says that forces loyal to the syrian president bashar assad fired what they are claiming a chemical weapons at rebels surrounding an army base in the town of address on the outskirts of the syrian capital of damascus now the reports we have all that two rebel fighters were killed and some twenty two people were wounded it comes in light of accusations last week in which both sides accuse the other of using chemical weapons in any mysterious explosion near the city of aleppo which killed some twenty six people and wounded dozens not of that incident was swiftly labeled by western intelligence agencies as a chemical incident perpetrated by forces loyal to the syrian president assad the syrian regime osce the united nations to launch an investigation the russian

ministry has said that if there are reasons to believe that chemical weapons in fact were used an international group comprising of permanent united nations security council members has to be saying to syria the american president barack obama he has constantly in the past put the issue of chemical weaponry on the table saying that a red line needs to be do go on and when he was here in the region recently he was quick to make harsh statements towards the syrian president over allegedly uses of chemical weapons once we establish the facts i have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game changer i am deeply skeptical. any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons we now have information to the country regarding the incident last week israel's leading daily newspaper ha'aretz whites that it was definitely not a chemical attack carried out by the syrian president assad what we're seeing more is that the syrian opposition is deeply divided the leader of the opposition was

hot tips resignation comes just months after his election now his decision to leave is being seen as a blow to the diminishing moderate wing of the uprising against the syrian president bashar assad there have in the past been and then launching number of resignations within the coalition itself by top opposition figures is what we've seen more and more is that the rebels are able to organize themselves that i'm able to consolidate the military and political bodies and increasingly it's clear that there's no direct link between the fighters on the ground in the coalition that is the in-built of boards the concern now is that more radical islamist groups might fill this void that is being lifted by the resignation of the leadership and at the same time it looks increasingly like no one is particularly interested in sitting down and having dialogue with the syrian president bashar assad also the u.k. and france recently suggested that a weapons involved on syria has to be lifted to the rebels as we see now the

initiative hasn't been given any kind of green light so growing concerns what is happening inside syria. middle east correspondent reporting that in the meantime. the journalist and political commentator in damascus believes the uncertainty over syria is bolstered by the many conflicting interests involved all across the opposition. he was the person who first proposed the notion of a dialogue with the syrian government and he was attacked by please let's say it was ill received by most of the other opposition factions coalition of opposition the revolutionary forces which most of us thought he was heading was oversleep facing some serious trouble regarding its internal unity gathers many people who have different points of view it has the liberals it tells the people from the left side it has the islamic fundamentalists and there is a muslim brotherhood so it gathered many voices and those voices only came together

because the united states from america thought that the opposition should be united now but in fact they can't be united because they have all these different ideologies and all different ways of approaching the syrian crisis the opposition has many sponsors and every sponsor is claiming his territory some of the opposition figures act accordingly to what their foreign sponsors who want them to do they're saying we are the opposition we are present the syrian people and anyone who says otherwise i won has another approach to the issue should not be labeled as opposition and this is a serious problem and i think it's one of the key factors behind the departure and to think about the syrian situation is that everyone is doing whatever they want and the opposition body abroad they can't control the rebel forces inside and even at the fact that the the free army has said it doesn't acknowledge mr he told the government it's a great indication so i think there's a big gap between the people fighting inside and opposition forces operating from the outside. and on the website right now r.t.

dot com web it was looking to fork out for a special cyber spying unit but stumbled over some surprise obstacles you can find out the details on our website r.t. dot com right now also on life here this hour the u.k. vets selling the say a third of british riders are too fat for their horses literally turning their balance into beasts of. for now the u.s. military continues to deny a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay prison the information blackout speaking fortified by the mainstream media and lawyers for more than one hundred captives over the failing health of their clients most americans are simply left in the dark about the story. portnoy reports. in the world of twenty four hour news no country knows the power of media better than the us hard to believe it's been ten years since the shock and awe campaign that

launched the iraq war we could have removed saddam hussein in another way that would not have been so damaging to america i mean a man had to go ten years later the killing continues in iraq without also continuing without end the mass hunger strike at the guantanamo bay detention center but that topic remains off the radar of mainstream news and hid it from the american public no i did not know to i had no idea you know really according to the center for constitutional rights one hundred thirty kuantan of zero prisoners began a life threatening hunger strike nearly seven weeks ago to protest treatment and conditions at the island prison a prison america's president promised would be closed at the start of twenty ten do you think that that's a topic that should be reported by u.s. media yeah i think so. because they are being kept in prison by the u.s. so it's only fair that they get their views expressed that's what the whole

country's built on the freedom of information to do that i mean i just think it's the right thing to do time square is otherwise known as the mecca of media messages millions walk through here on a daily basis flooded with information through news seekers plasma screens and advertisements but as we've learned even the most important stories can. be ignored that nobody else is talking about this subject if this were happening in russia if people had disappeared into a legal black hole in russia and were facing indefinite incarceration without trial without charge and without access of attorneys would never hear the end of it the western media would be full of it human rights watch honest international they'd be screaming from the rooftops of westminster behind me but because this is an american crime because it's an american crime they're allowed to get away with it because the people who control the so-called mainstream media are

fully on side with the agenda of the obama administration a top u.s. general down calling for hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the u.s. detention facility when c.n.n. finally turned its focus to get knowledge and so-called worldwide leader in news north to the hunger strike is there anything wrong with trying to improve it fix it spend a few hundred million dollars to get it ready for maybe a new generation of terrorists instead focusing on the money requested to update the facility where one hundred sixty six detainees are still languishing you know that more than half of the team at guantanamo have been cleared for release i used the area. you know i didn't i had no idea that while i did not. as more than one hundred prisoners reportedly continued their hunger strike the u.s. military continues to dispute the figures however when r.t.e.

first broke the story on march twelfth u.s. officials were denying that a strike was even taking place as you recall they started off by saying no one's on a hunger strike just the five or six people who have been on a hunger strike for many years you know then that figure was revised up to fourteen and now we're seeing the figure steadily increasing but to nowhere near the the extent that the that the prison lawyers are talking about and i think you know hearing about how the lawyers are not being allowed to visit plus this big gulf between what the law is saying and what the administration is saying is indicative of the administration still trying to clamp down on these they don't want this story aired and i think that that means that there is a very big story going on but in the business of broadcast news u.s. networks have to prioritize which big stories deserve the most attention that's right the canadians are using farting to combat smoking nancy grace first of all i

want to express my condolences what happened to your necklace former president bill clinton gets his way actress ashley judd will never be a united states senator. artsy new york hollywood liberal. once america's top known nato ally in the war on terror former pakistani president pervez musharaff has returned to the called big zone after four years of self-imposed exile he's aiming to surge back to the political scene by leading his party in the upcoming elections in may and watch out of returns despite a criminal charges against him and at home death threats as well from the taliban the move comes as if u.s. and its allies are winding down their presence in neighboring afghanistan in the face of resurgent militant activity you. are just a moment here on r t if you can indeed stay with us since the vacate partridge in a recap of the week's top sporting highlights.

almost since the new pope was chosen the calls for reform are analysts everyone wants the new pope to allow this and to allow that but the problem is that the catholic church is a religion not a product and people don't like the way a pepsi bottle looks while the company will have to in theory change it to meet public demand but the pope claims to represent the will of the creator of the universe the pope supposedly holds and protects an ancient an eternal truth so how can you expect this eternal truth just up and change because of public demand even though they pretend like adult religions do change over time but how can you expect the pope after hundreds of years of saying that people would be condemned to the fires of hell and eternity in the charred walls of the damned for certain sins just now say well i guess those sins are ok if you are catholic and you want your

religion to change constantly then why do you believe in it why bother having principles and rules in the first place supposedly given to you by the almighty if you're just going to change them whenever you feel like it. i don't get this but that's just my opinion. hello and welcome to the r t sports show with me kate partridge with a busy week of sporting action from russia and around the world and here are the top stories. it's no joke at russia's world cup qualifying northern ireland is

postponed after two attempts to kick off were thwarted by heavy snow but fabio capello's men stay top of group. plus the european court so it's got seal a place in the playoffs but he has two games left to book the birth after an eventful round for the russian teams in the euro the. and the daddy of all fences a limping bronze medalist nicholai combo the offer comes back from paternity leave to win individual gold at the star studded bosco saber. but first let's kick off with football as the russian national team flew out to belfast last week to play northern ireland in the fifth game of their world cup qualifying campaign but heavy snow meant that two attempts to get the match underway were lost to the elements rebound porfiry documents a weekend of frustration for both fabio capello's men and their fans. there

was much expectation as russia took to the training field ahead of their world cup qualifier with northern ireland they were top of the group with a one hundred percent record and hadn't conceded a goal in their four games so far the trip to belfast was going to be one of the toughest of the campaign however head coach fabio capello was more worried about the wind and not the seven defeated concern for the rain this is a good motivator the reason that the pitch i have been one of the wind we've be lower however the wind was and the only thing capello should have been worried about some heavy snow which had been falling constantly for almost twenty four hours in the northern irish capital meant there was a race against time to get a pitch fit for this encounter. in belfast has certainly taken a turn for the worse with some of the worst conditions at this time of year in living memory all teams will tend to try and play again on saturday but with yet more snow.